Adil Najam
Today is the 10th of Muharram. Ashura.
It commemorates a struggle that is steeped in deep spiritual meaning, not only for Islamic history but for all humanity. It is a struggle between good and evil, between just and unjust, between weak and powerful, between immediate and the eternal, between principle and ambition. The power of Ashura is not only in the epic events that it commemorates, it is in the narrative of those events, in the symbolisms that we construct. Ultimately, it is in the meanings that we derive from those events.
Muharram is, of course, of special significance to Shias. But the events and meaning of Ashura is of significance and relevance to all Muslims, and I would suggest, to all humans everywhere.
Like so many others growing up in a Sunni household I grew up observing ehteram-i-Muharram and am always drawn in the days leading up to Ashura towards thinking about the meaning of religion and of faith. To me these have always been days of deep spiritual reflection; especially of intellectual enquiry into the meaning of justice (the concept of ‘adl’ holds a deep significance to me given the name I was given at birth and therefore I have always interpreted Ashura particularly as a time to reflect on what justice is).
Growing up in Pakistan, the night of Ashura was always defined for me by the Majlis i Shaam i Gharibaan (often by Allama Naseer ul Ijtihaadi) on PTV on the night of dasveen Muharram, which was followed immediately – and at right about midnight – by Syed Nasir Jahan’s soulful recitation of Salam-i-Akhir.
Bachay to aglay baras hum hain aur yeh gham phir hai
Jo chal basay tou yeh appna salam-i-akhir hai
His soulful voice, so pregnant with a deep and heartfelt pain, always echoes in my head when I read of continuing sectarian violence and the instigation of sectarian hatred.
Also echoing in my head are memories of the eloquent narratives of those PTV Shaam i Gharibaan’s. What I took from my yearly ritual of sitting glued to the screen was that the message of Ashura, of Karbala, is a universal and humanist messages. Justice is a universal message. Courage is a universal message. Conviction is a universal message. Sacrifice is a universal message.
It is the universality of the messages of Ashura that I hope we will all reflect upon. Every one of these messages is literally torn asunder each Muharram when the merchants of sectarianism highjack these commemorations with their vitriolic politics of fear, of difference, of hatred.
While these are universal messages, they are also – as they must be – messages of Pakistaniat. Yasser Hamdani sent me this quote from Mohammad Ali Jinnah published in a souvenir commemorating the 1300th anniversay of Imam Hussain’s shahadat.
There cannot be a better and more illustrious example than that of Husein who was the greatest embodiment of courage, conviction and sacrifice and every Mussalman in particular should take the great example of his life and service and follow it.
Jinnah was right. He would probably be pained to see how not only his own message, but that of Imam Hussain’s life -and death – have been so very lost on so many of his countrymen today.
Salamalikum,
I’m surprised the ATP administrators haven’t brought the hammer down yet for commets being not on topic now. May be they will do it soon. Since they haven’t, I’ll say a few things as well. The differences between Shia and Sunnis are not “little stuff”. Whoever calls Sahabahs names is doing a huge sin, and this is one of the things Shais do. Outside of Sayedna Ali (ra), Ammar (ra), Abu Zarr (ra) and a few more, Shias blame all the rest of the Sahaba including Sayedna Abu Bakr (ra), Umar (ra), Usman (ra) and rest of the ashara mubashara sahaba, outside of Ali, of course. As most know, even saying that Abu Bakr and Umar contrived to snatch the khilafah away from Ali and burned ahadeeth with Seyeda Ayesah (ra) which mentioned superiority of Ali and his right to khilafah.
To the people (sahaba) to whom Allah (swt) has said that He is raazi with them, it’s very wrong to call them names. There is a lot to say but since this is not exactly the right place, I’ll leave you guys with this: Here are two links on Youtube where Hasan Nasrallah, the “shinning star” of Shias today, is condemning the sahahbas, first Sayedna Abu Sufyan (ra) (father of Muawiyah) and then all the sahabas collectively. Look at his audacity. It’s in arabic, but in first he’s saying that Abu Sufyan has nifaaq and in the other alleging that the sahabas “abondoned” Hussain (ra). All these are lies if one looks at the history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy8oKEhPIPc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oetLTl5u2zQ
Also, some Sunnis even might think that Abu Sufyan became Muslim only during Fath-e-Makkah, but once he did, he was very pious and shameful and at his death bed said, as has been reported in a saheeh narration, that after becoming Muslim I have not done a single thing wrong, inshaAllah. Also, his wife, Hind, said to Rasoolullah (saw) that before we became Muslim, there was no house we hated more than Rasoolullah’s (saw) house; but, after becoming Muslim, there is nobody we love more than Rasoolullah (saw). To which Rasoolullah (saw) answered that just wait, your (and your family/rest of the people’s) love for me will keep increasing even more. Meaning, they will become like the rest of the Muslims who had converted before Fath-e-Makkah, the best of Muslims, with no trace of pagan beliefs, kufr, etc.
[quote post=”550″]subscribe so heavily to Wahabi philosophy.[/quote]
Eideee, what I feel that you are being defensive enough about your own sect that you are blaming other communities[wahabis here] to prove your point.
I see many people when find no sensible point to argue start blaming Wahabis. I ask what do you guys know about Wahabism? someone on KMB made a lame statment that wahabis are enemies of sunnis and shias and “Sipah Sahaba” was declared as Wahabiat precher. It’s pretty lame. Wahabism is not a sect like Shia or SUnni, it’s a movement against the lame thing which were later “injected” in Islam which are called Bidat which was highly cursed by the Prophet[saw] himself. As i mentioned the link here before in some other thread,i am pasting again so that you can learn a bit about Wahabism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi#Beliefs
read all and tell what’s unislamic here? the points mentioned here are really unislamic and NONE of them was practised at the time of Prophet[saw] or His companions. People hate wahabism because it rejects the glamourized version of Islam which you people always want to practise. Partying in name of Milad,visiting shrines,birthday celebrations of Muhammad[saw] and others, these are not Islamic and this is what Wahabism preaches. Why do you care what arab says or not? Allah will not grant you access to Jannah because you follow Shiaism and ifollow sunnism or someone reject Wahabism. As long as you are following orignal belief, you re safe otherwise you are in trouble.
As far as 10th moharram paractise, yes u like itor not but for shias 10th moharram now is nothing but halla gulla, they gather,strike their chest for few time then forget everything. See the pics here they don’t look sad and all looks they are killing time. It sounds so illogical that we feel sad for Hussain[ra] just for a month and then forget his sacrifice. what kinda love it is for Hussain[ra]? I don’t understand it at all. If Shias spend moharram time by coming out on roads then sunnis are not saint either, most of them spend moharram’s leaves in watching movies as if Hussain[ra] has no relation with Sunnis.Pathetic!
@YLH:you missed the whole point dude and this is because you saw the keyword “TALIBAN”, The main idea of the entire article was cursing pakistan’s coward attitude to deal with a super power nothing else.
PS: By “his son” I meant quite clearly Muawiyah’s son Yazid ofcourse. But then again, some must be so charged up by religion – looking for the smallest excuse to show their religiousity- must have been blind enough to assume that I was talking about the Holy Prophet’s grandson…
The problem with our society is the lack of tolerance and/or giving the benefit of doubt to the other. Only god knows how he came to the conclusion that I was “denying” the Karbala massacre and the tragedy unleashed on the family of the Prophet… perhaps it is the “holier than thou” attitude that plagues Wahabis and Shias alike that is the problem here. I quote my original post here and ask if others too can draw the same conclusions…
[quote comment=”32363″]I read that article by Javed Chaudhry… and frankly I disagree with it completely.
The conflict at Karbala was essentially a power struggle between Banu Omeyya and Banu Hashim…
Muawiyah, being a prudent and wise man, had sought to compromise with the family of the Prophet (PBUH)… but his son made the huge mistake of antagonizing the masses by ordering the butchery at Karbala… we mourn the family of the prophet because it was a great tragedy.
Taliban on the other hand persecuted inter alia the shias, sunnis, hazaras, women etc… how can anyone compare them to Imam Hussain’s sacrifice… god knows. Perhaps Mongol Horde under Genghis Khan is a much better analogy
But then you have people like Mullah Zaheer running amuck… making a mockery of our country, our people and our religion… and people like Javed Chaudhry around to encourage this.[/quote]
Clearly my point that Imam Hussain’s sacrifice should not be compared to taliban has been lost.
Eidee Mian,
It is amazing that you accuse me who was brought up in shiite dominated household of being a “Wahabi”. If objectivity is being “Wahabi” then so be it. However my point – which clearly missed you- was that comparing Taliban to Imam Hussain (as Javed Chaudhry has done in the article quoted by Adnan Siddiqui) is a travesty.
I am afraid I have read history of that period too closely not to see the real power struggle that was going on and the role of Abdullah Bin Zubair in egging on Imam Hussain to make way for his own claim. This does not take away from the supreme tragedy that Karbala is nor does it take away from the character and life of Imam Hussain.
BTW… I am Yasser Hamdani mentioned hereinabove.